Automate Excel with Power Automate

Can you automate Excel with Power Automate?

Quick Answer: Yes. Power Automate connects to Excel files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint via cloud flows, and can also control the desktop Excel application via Power Automate Desktop (RPA). Common automations include populating spreadsheets from form submissions, generating reports, and syncing data between Excel and other systems.

Automating Excel with Power Automate

Microsoft Power Automate provides two approaches to Excel automation as of April 2026: cloud flows that interact with Excel files via the Microsoft Graph API, and desktop flows (RPA) that control the Excel desktop application directly.

Cloud Flows — Excel Online

Cloud flows work with Excel files stored in OneDrive for Business or SharePoint. The file must contain a formatted table (Insert > Table in Excel) for Power Automate to read and write rows.

Available Triggers

When a row is modified — Fires when any cell in a table row changes
For a selected row (manual trigger) — Run the flow for a specific row from the Excel interface

Available Actions

List rows present in a table — Retrieve all rows from an Excel table
Get a row — Retrieve a specific row by key column value
Add a row into a table — Insert a new row with specified column values
Update a row — Modify column values in an existing row
Delete a row — Remove a row from the table
Run script — Execute an Office Script for complex operations

Desktop Flows — Excel Desktop Application

Power Automate Desktop can control the Excel desktop application through UI automation and built-in Excel actions:

Open, save, and close Excel workbooks
Read and write cell values, ranges, and formulas
Run VBA macros
Copy data between worksheets and workbooks
Format cells, apply filters, and create charts

Common Automation Scenarios

Form-to-Spreadsheet

Trigger: Microsoft Forms submission
Action: Add a row to an Excel table in SharePoint with form responses

Daily Report Generation

Trigger: Scheduled (daily at 8 AM)
Action: Query data from SQL/Dataverse, populate an Excel template, email as attachment

Data Sync

Trigger: New row in Excel table
Action: Create a record in Dynamics 365, Salesforce, or SharePoint list

Requirements and Limitations

Cloud flows require Excel files in OneDrive/SharePoint with formatted tables
Desktop flows require Power Automate Premium ($15/user/month) for attended runs
Cloud flow Excel actions have a 256-column and 100,000-row practical limit
Office Scripts (cloud) support programmatic Excel manipulation beyond simple row operations